J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is one of the oldest financial services firms in the world. It has operations in 60 countries. It is a leader in financial services with assets of $2 trillion, and the largest market capitalization[1] and third largest deposit base U.S. banking institution behind Wells Fargo and Bank of America. The hedge fund unit of JPMorgan Chase is the second largest hedge fund in the United States with $32.893 billion in assets as of 2009.[2] Formed in 2000, when Chase Manhattan Corporation merged with J.P. Morgan & Co., the firm serves millions of consumers in the United States and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and governmental clients.

The JP Morgan brand is used by the Investment Bank as well as the Asset Management, Private Banking, Private Wealth Management, and Treasury & Securities Services divisions. Fiduciary activity within Private Banking and Private Wealth Management is done under the aegis of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.—the actual trustee. The Chase brand is used for credit card services in the United States and Canada, the bank's retail banking activities in the United States, and commercial banking.

Chase Manhattan Bank

Logo used by Chase prior to rebranding and its merger with J.P. Morgan & Co. Created by Chermayeff & Geismar. The segmented octagon symbol is still in use today.

The Chase Manhattan Bank was formed upon the 1931 purchase of Chase National Bank (established in 1877) by the Bank of the Manhattan Company (established in 1799), the company's oldest predecessor institution. The Bank of the Manhattan Company was the creation of Aaron Burr, who transformed The Manhattan Company from a water carrier into a bank.

Led by David Rockefeller during the 1970s and the 1980s, Chase Manhattan emerged as one of the largest and most prestigious banking concerns, with leadership positions in syndicated lending, treasury and securities services, credit cards, mortgages, and retail financial services. Weakened by the real estate collapse in the early 1990s, it was acquired by Chemical Bank in 1996 retaining the prominent Chase name. Prior to its notable merger with J.P. Morgan & Co., the New Chase expanded the investment and asset management groups through two acquisitions. In 1999, it acquired San Francisco-based Hambrecht & Quist for $1.35 billion. In April 2000, UK-based Robert Fleming & Co. was sold to the new Chase Manhattan Bank for $7.7 billion.

According to page 114 of An Empire of Wealth by John Steele Gordon, the origin of this strand of JPMorgan Chase's history runs as follows:

“At the turn of the nineteenth century, obtaining a bank charter required an act of the state legislature. This of course injected a powerful element of politics into the process and invited what today would be called corruption but then was regarded as business as usual. Hamilton's political enemy—and eventual murderer—Aaron Burr was able to create a bank by sneaking a clause into a charter for a company, called the Manhattan Company, to provide clean water to New York City. The innocuous-looking clause allowed the company to invest surplus capital in any lawful enterprise. Within six months of the company's creation, and long before it had laid a single section of water pipe, the company opened a bank, the Bank of the Manhattan Company. Still in existence, it is today J.P.Morgan Chase, the second largest bank in the United States.”

September 16, 1920: a bomb exploded in front of the headquarters of J.P. Morgan Inc. at 23 Wall Street, injuring 400 and killing 38 people.

Built in 1914, 23 Wall Street was known as the "House of Morgan," and for decades the bank's headquarters was the most important address in American finance. At noon, on September 16, 1920, a terrorist bomb exploded in front of the bank, injuring 400 and killing 38. Shortly before the bomb went off, a warning note was placed in a mailbox at the corner of Cedar Street and Broadway. The warning read: "Remember we will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death for all of you. American Anarchists Fighters." While theories abound about who was behind the Wall Street bombing and why they did it, after 20 years of investigation the FBI rendered the case inactive without ever finding the perpetrators.

In August 1914, Henry P. Davison, a Morgan partner, traveled to the UK and made a deal with the Bank of England to make J.P. Morgan & Co. the monopoly underwriter of war bonds for the UK and France. The Bank of England became a "fiscal agent" of J.P. Morgan & Co., and vice-versa. The company also invested in the suppliers of war equipment to Britain and France. Thus, the company profited from the financing and purchasing activities of the two European governments.

In the 1930s, all of J.P. Morgan & Co. along with all integrated banking businesses in the United States, was required by the provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act to separate its investment banking from its commercial banking operations. J.P. Morgan & Co. chose to operate as a commercial bank, because at the time commercial lending was perceived as more profitable and prestigious. Additionally, many within J.P. Morgan believed that a change in political climate would eventually allow the company to resume its securities businesses but it would be nearly impossible to reconstitute the bank if it were disassembled.

In 1935, after being barred from securities business for over a year, the heads of J.P. Morgan spun off its investment-banking operations. Led by J.P. Morgan partners, Henry S. Morgan (son of Jack Morgan and grandson of J. Pierpont Morgan) and Harold Stanley, Morgan Stanley was founded on September 16, 1935 with $6.6 million of nonvoting preferred stock from J.P. Morgan partners. In order to bolster its position, in 1959, J.P. Morgan merged with the Guaranty Trust Company of New York to form the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. The bank would continue to operate as Morgan Guaranty Trust through the 1980s, before beginning to migrate back toward the use of the J.P. Morgan brand. In 1984, the group finally purchased the Purdue National Corporation of Lafayette Indiana, uniting a history between the two figures of Salmon Portland Chase and John Purdue. In 1988, the company once again began operating exclusively as J.P. Morgan & Co.

Bank One Corporation

In 2004, JPMorgan Chase merged with Bank One Corp., bringing on board current chairman and CEOJamie Dimon as president and COO and designating him as CEO William B. Harrison, Jr.'s successor. Dimon's pay was pegged at 90% of Harrison's. Dimon quickly made his influence felt by embarking on a cost-cutting strategy and replaced former JPMorgan Chase executives in key positions with Bank One executives—many of whom were with Dimon at Citigroup. Dimon became CEO in January 2006 and Chairman in December 2006.

Bank One Corporation was formed upon the 1998 merger between Bank One of Columbus, Ohio and First Chicago NBD. These two large banking companies had themselves been created through the merger of many banks. This merger was largely considered a failure until Jamie Dimon—recently ousted as President of Citigroup—took over and reformed the new firm's practices—especially its disastrous technology mishmash inherited from the many mergers prior to this one. Mr. Dimon effected more than sufficient changes to make Bank One Corporation a viable merger partner for JPMorgan Chase.

Bank One Corporation traced its roots to First Bancgroup of Ohio, founded as a holding company for City National Bank of Columbus, Ohio and several other banks in that state, all of which were renamed "Bank One" when the holding company was renamed Bank One Corporation. With the beginning of interstate banking they spread into other states, always renaming acquired banks "Bank One", though for a long time they resisted combining them into one bank. After the NBD merger, adverse financial results led to the departure of CIO John B. McCoy, whose father and grandfather had headed Banc One and predecessors. Jamie Dimon, a former key executive of Citigroup, was brought in to head the company. JPMorgan Chase completed the acquisition of Bank One in Q3 2004.

Bear Stearns

At the end of 2007, Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. was the fifth largest investment bank in the United States but its market capitalization had deteriorated through the second half of 2007. On Friday, March 14, 2008 Bear Stearns lost 47% of its equity market value to close at $30.00 per share as rumors emerged that clients were withdrawing capital from the bank. Over the following weekend it emerged that Bear Stearns might prove insolvent and on or around March 15, 2008 the Federal Reserve engineered a deal to prevent a wider systemic crisis from the collapse of Bear Stearns.

On March 16, 2008, after a weekend of intense negotiations between JPMorgan, Bear, and the federal government, JPMorgan Chase announced that it had plans to acquire Bear Stearns in a stock swap worth $2.00 per share or $240 million pending shareholder approval scheduled within 90 days. In the interim, JPMorgan Chase agreed to guarantee all Bear Stearns trades and business process flows.[18] Two days later, on March 18, 2008, JPMorgan Chase formally announced the acquisition of Bear Stearns for $236 million. The stock swap agreement was signed in the late-night hours of March 18, 2008, with JPMorgan agreeing to exchange 0.05473 of each of its shares upon closure of the merger for one Bear share, valuing the Bear shares at $2 each. [19]

On March 24, 2008, after considerable public discontent by Bear Stearns shareholders over the low acquisition price threatened the deal's closure, a revised offer was announced at approximately $10 per share. Under the revised terms, JPMorgan also immediately acquired a 39.5% stake in Bear Stearns (using newly issued shares) at the new offer price and gained a commitment from the board (representing another 10% of the share capital) that its members would vote in favour of the new deal. With sufficient commitments thus in hand to ensure a successful shareholder vote, the merger was completed on June 2, 2008.

Washington Mutual

On September 25, 2008; JPMorgan Chase bought most of the banking operations of Washington Mutual from the receivership of the FDIC. That night, the Office of Thrift Supervision had seized Washington Mutual Bank and placed it into receivership in by far the largest bank failure in American history. The FDIC sold the bank's assets, secured debt obligations and deposits to JPMorgan Chase & Co for $1.836 billion, which re-opened the bank the following day. As a result of the takeover, Washington Mutual shareholders lost all their equity.[20]

JPMorgan Chase raised $10 billion in a stock sale to cover writedowns and losses after taking on deposits and branches of Washington Mutual.[21] Through the acquisition, JPMorgan now owns the former accounts of Providian Financial, a credit card issuer WaMu acquired in 2005. The company announced plans to complete the rebranding of Washington Mutual branches to Chase by late 2009.

Currently, some shareholders are fighting what they consider the illegal seizure of Washington Mutual claiming that the OTS acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner and seized the bank for political reasons or for the benefit of JPMorgan Chase, which acquired a large network of branches at what they claim to be an unfairly low price. They claim that as of the date of the takeover, the bank had enough liquidity to meet all its obligations and was in compliance with the business plan negotiated with the OTS 2 weeks earlier and that the holding company's board and management was kept completely in the dark about the government's negotiations with Chase, hampering the bank's ability to sell itself on its own.

Chief executive Alan H. Fishman was flying from New York to Seattle on the day the bank was closed, and eventually received a $7.5 million sign-on bonus and cash severance of $11.6 million after being CEO for 17 days.

Other recent acquisitions

In 2006, JPMorgan Chase purchased Collegiate Funding Services, a portfolio company of private equity firm Lightyear Capital, for $663 million. CFS was used as the foundation for the Chase Student Loans, previously known as Chase Education Finance.[22]

In April, 2006, JPMorgan Chase announced it would swap its corporate trust unit for The Bank of New York Co.'s retail and small business banking network. The swap valued The Bank of New York business at $3.1 billion and JPMorgan's trust unit at $2.8 billion and gave Chase access to 338 additional branches and 700,000 new customers in New York, New Jersey, and Indiana.

Offices

Although the old Chase Manhattan Bank's headquarters were once located at the One Chase Manhattan Plaza building in downtown Manhattan, the current world headquarters for JPMorgan Chase & Co. are located at 270 Park Avenue.

The bulk of North American operations take place in four buildings located adjacent to each other on Park Avenue in New York City: the former Union Carbide Building at 270 Park Avenue, the hub of sales and trading operations, and the original Chemical Bank building at 277 Park Avenue, where most investment banking activity took place. Asset and wealth management groups are located at 245 Park Avenue and 345 Park Avenue. Other groups are located in the former Bear Stearns building at 383 Madison Avenue.

Approximately 10,000 employees are located in Columbus at the McCoy Center, the former Bank One offices.

The JPMorgan Investment Bank also maintained a number of high-profile offices around the globe, with the largest concentrations outside the US in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. In August 2008, the bank announced plans to construct a new European headquarters, based at Canary Wharf, London.[30]

Controversy

Legal proceedings

WorldCom

J. P. Morgan Chase, which helped underwrite $15.4 billion of WorldCom's bonds, agreed in the middle of March 2005 to pay $2 billion; that was 46 percent, or $630 million, more than it would have paid had it accepted an investor offer in May of $1.37 billion. J. P. Morgan was the last big lender to settle. Its payment is the second largest in the case, exceeded only by the $2.6 billion accord reached in Q4 2004 by Citigroup.[31] In March 2005, 16 of WorldCom's 17 former underwriters reached settlements with the investors.[32][33]

Jefferson County, Alabama

In November 2009, JP Morgan Chase & Co. agreed to a $722 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to end a probe into sales of derivatives that helped push Alabama’s most populous county to the brink of bankruptcy. The settlement came a week after Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Larry Langford was convicted on 60 counts of bribery, money laundering, and tax evasion related to bond swaps for Jefferson County, Alabama. The SEC alleged that JP Morgan, who the county commissioners voted to underwrite the floating-rate sewer bond deals and provide interest-rate swaps, had made undisclosed payments to close friends of the commissioners in exchange for the deal. JP Morgan then allegedly made up for the costs by charging higher interest rates on the swaps.[34]

Washington Mutual

On July 7, 2009 Chase was served with the first subpoenas request documents over the behavior of Chase before the destruction of Wamu, particularly concerning share manipulation by shorting and wrong information of the media. The lawsuit alleges that JPMorgan drove down Wamu's share price so it could purchase the bank's assets at a fire-sale price. Key aspects of the alleged scheme include entering into false negotiations with WMI and WMB under the guise of a good-faith bidder during the summer of 2008, gaining access to confidential and proprietary information, and disseminating that confidential information to the media and investors in an effort to drive down WMI’s credit rating and stock price."

Other Difficulties

JP Morgan broke Stock Exchange rules by not disclosing purchases they made, in the 2009 $3 billion take over bid for Dragon Oil.[35]

TARP and home foreclosures

The US Treasury Department transferred $25 billion of US funds to JPMorgan Chase on Oct 28 via the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).[36] This was the fifth largest amount transferred under the United States 2008 bailout bill (TARP) primarily related to USA mortgages.[37] A main stipulation in TARP was to help troubled assets related to residential mortgages and all obligations as such.

In October 2008 a New York Times reporter was able to access a telephone employees-only conference call with JP Morgan Chase:

"Twenty-five billion dollars is obviously going to help the folks who are struggling more than Chase,” he began. What we do think it will help us (JPMorgan Chase) do is perhaps be a little bit more active on the acquisition side or opportunistic side for some banks who are still struggling. And I would not assume that we are done on the acquisition side just because of the Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns mergers. I think there are going to be some great opportunities for us (JPMorgan Chase) to grow in this environment, and I think we have an opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way and obviously depending on whether recession turns into depression or what happens in the future, you know, we have that as a backstop.[38]

—Employees only conference call with JP Morgan Chase

TARP states "Troubled assets" are defined as "(A) residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before March 14, 2008, the purchase of which the Secretary determines promotes financial market stability" [36], But a news release issued by JP Morgan Chase noted on December 23, 2008 showed a diversion from TARP.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is using the TARP funding for the purposes that the government has designated. The company (JP Morgan Chase) is lending to consumers, small businesses, corporations, municipalities and other institutions in a disciplined and responsible manner.[39]

JPMorgan would be fine if we stopped talking about the damn nationalization of banks. We've got plenty of capital. To policymakers, I say where were they? … They approved all these banks. Now they're beating up on everyone, saying look at all these mistakes, and we're going to come and fix it.[40][41]

In February 2009, JPMorgan Chase moved forward in using their monetary strength to acquire new businesses by advertising the strength of their capital base [40]. Yet to be determined as to whether these funds were provided by TARP and possibly in direct violation of TARP’s main intent; to help troubled assets related to residential mortgages and all obligations as spelled out in TARP, the US Government as of Feb 2009 had yet to move forward in enforcing TARPs’ intent in funding JP Morgan Chase $25 billion.[36]

In January 2009, JPMorgan Chase announced its intent to change the terms of upwards of a trillion dollars' worth of mortgages in an effort to keep them from foreclosure.[42] Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan chief executive, criticized a proposed law that would allow bankruptcy judges to cut the mortgage rates in existing mortgages for borrowers who would otherwise be forced into default.[42] Despite its announcement in January 2009, JPMorgan Chase had continued to process foreclosures on hundreds of thousands of properties.[36][40][41][43]

In June 2009, JPMorgan Chase repaid the full $25 billion of TARP money that it received under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. In addition to the principal loan repayment, they paid the US Treasury $795,138,889 in dividends on the preferred stock. This calculates to a repayment of interest of 3.18% over a period of 9 months, or 4.2% annualized.

In July 2009, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told the Wall Street Journal that, after having received its TARP bailout in late 2008, JPMorgan Chase paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to more than 1826 of its employees. This included the bank giving $1 million bonuses to each of more than 1626 employees, and $3 million bonuses to each of more than 200 employees.[44]

Major sponsorships

The JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge, owned and operated by JPMorgan Chase, is the largest corporate road racing series in the world with over 200,000 participants in 12 cities in six countries on five continents. It has been held annually since 1977 and the races range in size from 4,000 entrants to more than 60,000.